Past Sorrow And Future Hope
by TerraZeal
Summary: Twilight remembers the deaths of her friends, their funerals, and their lives. Her depressing thoughts are interrupted by a knock at the door, where she finds a basket with a strange green egg inside. Can Twilight overcome her past prejudice to care for this hatchling? Established character deaths. OC is simply the hatchling in the egg.


_**AN:** Twilight remembers the deaths of her friends and the legacies they left behind, eventually discovering a great surprise that makes her rethink her hatred of immortality. AU of course. Shipping within. No mare x mare shipping. Also, I do not indent paragraphs. If you don't like this, don't read. _

**Past Sorrow And Future Hope**

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, sighed as she left her throne room. The seats for the other Elements...her friends….were empty, of course. As an immortal alicorn, they would remain empty. She had learned that the Elements were now spread all across Equestria, thanks to she and her friends' hard work with the Cutie Map all those years ago.

Yes, so many years ago. She walked into her bedroom and flopped back on the soft mattress, not bothering to move her wings into a more comfortable position, and closed her eyes. It had been, what, nearly a thousand years? More? The only friends she had left were the princesses, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence.

There was Spike of course, but he was a full grown dragon, and could no longer remain in Ponyville or even the largest room of her castle. He had found a massive cave in a nearby mountain where he had made his lair, lay with his mate, and kept his treasure hoard, but he was currently napping, if one could call sleeping for over a hundred years a nap.

Spike had also taken on some of the...less desirable traits of a dragon after Rarity's death. He could be brutal and snappy when pushed. Rarity's death seemed to have brought out the side of him that he had so long suppressed to keep her happy. His inner dragon had finally come to the fore. Perhaps it was for the best that he was napping. Luckily, he and his mate didn't snore great gouts of smoke like the dragon from so long ago that had decided to nap above Ponyville.

She remembered her friends' deaths vividly. As much as she had tried to forget, the alicorn princess could not. Not even with the help of her fellow princesses. Celestia had tried to comfort her, telling her that the pain would lessen with time, leaving her with only happy memories, but it hadn't. It was as fresh as if it had happened yesterday. Twilight turned and pressed her face into her pillow, tears sliding from her eyes.

Rainbow Dash had been the first to pass. Of course she would have been. She had to be first at everything. After a long career in the Wonderbolts, and a long career as a legendary former Wonderbolt, she was still athletic as ever, but that had turned out to be her downfall.

The rainbow pegasus, despite being near eighty years old, still acted as if she were a young mare. She had been trying to perform a Rainboom when it happened. She had got up to speed, but then her heart simply gave out and she had started to fall. Twilight had used her magic to slow her fall, but it had done nothing. No magic could make her heart beat again.

The funeral was as a celebrity's funeral usually was. Filled with fans, friends, and even family. An orange pegasus mare had been the one to speak about Rainbow, telling all the fans and people who didn't really know her that her mother had been a great pony, a great mother, and much more than just a Wonderbolt. Twilight smiled. Yes, in the end, Rainbow Dash hadn't settled down, but she had officially adopted the little orange pegasus orphan, Scootaloo.

After Rainbow, Pinkie had followed. She was the premiere party planner in all of Equestria, along with her stallion, Cheese Sandwich, who had come back and admitted that he was in love with her. Together, the two party ponies had pretty much taken over all party business in Equestria. They had never had foals. Twilight suspected it was because neither one of them was capable of stopping a party long enough to care for a foal. She giggled slightly, remembering Pinkie and Cheese's parties. Together, their parties were better than a single one thrown by either.

Pinkie had, of course, passed away during a party. It was a party to celebrate her husband's birthday, as it turned out. Cheese was turning eighty-two, and Pinkie had made it a bash to remember. She had even tried to somehow get eighty-plus candles on a cake. The party had lasted well into the night. Twilight remembered how fun and enjoyable it had been, until near the end.

Pinkie had told everyone that she was feeling a bit tired, and that she was going to lie down for a bit. Cheese Sandwich had followed her with his eyes, and Twilight recalled how the two had locked eyes, with Cheese giving a slight nod, and returning to the party, grinning and juggling and keeping the happy event going. After the party, Cheese had asked the Princess to stay. That was when Twilight knew. Cheese and Pinkie were so close and similar that Cheese had known that Pinkie asking to lie down during a party was so out of character for her that it could only mean one thing.

Cheese had asked her to put together the funeral, and to move Pinkie, because he couldn't bear to see his wife so lifeless. Twilight had obliged, but she remembered weeping the entire time. Cheese had passed away shortly after, from grief, she was sure. She remembered going to Sugar Cube Corner and finding him at a table, apparently asleep, with a smile on his face. He was just as lifeless as Pinkie had been, but she was sure beyond any doubt that Cheese and Pinkie were partying in the afterlife.

Twilight was very sure that all of Equestria had turned out for Pinkie's funeral. She even remembered seeing Yaks and Griffons. Gilda, her feathers gray and her eyes faded, had been in the crowd. Rainbow and Pinkie had been her first pony friends, after all, and she was determined to be at their funerals. As Pinkie would have wanted it, Twilight had used her royal powers and turned Pinkie's funeral into a party, claiming that the Element of Laughter would be upset if it WASN'T a party.

Twilight realized she was sobbing. Her pillow was soaked. She pulled it out and turned it over, pressing her face into the dry side and closing her eyes. She still felt the tears soaking her fur. The princess curled up into a fetal position, recalling the deaths of her other friends.

Rarity had passed a few years after Pinkie. Even though she was very old, she still clung to her beauty. And she was. Beautiful, of course. Twilight grinned as she remembered Rarity lying in the hospital, having been told that she wouldn't recover, and demanding that her funeral dress be absolutely fabulous, or she would come back and haunt Ponyville forever.

The fashionista had had a heart attack while making one of her new dresses. She had been overworked, and even her daughter and husband had told her she needed to let her assistant take care of some of the work, but she wouldn't listen. She had, in the end, married Fancy Pants. After he'd broken up with Fleur, he'd sought out Rarity, and the rest was history. Spike hadn't even been jealous.

By then, he'd realized they would always be nothing but friends, and Spike had, secretly, to everyone but Twilight, found a lovely dragoness during the last dragon migration that he'd immediately been smitten with. Her name was been Scarlet, and she too had been raised by a unicorn, hatched by an old friend Twilight knew as Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight had been happy for Spike and Scarlet, but she also wondered how Scarlet had felt when Sunset had left her. Twilight would never have left Spike. Of course, she had never asked Scarlet. She figured it was dragon business, and left it to Spike to figure out dragon feelings. Still, Spike had been enraged after Rarity died. She remembered how he had almost burned down the hospital because they had failed to save her. It had taken all of Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy's calming words and begging to keep him from turning the Ponyville hospital into ashes.

That was when Scarlet had come for him. Twilight didn't know if the dragoness had felt his pain or what, but she had came, and they spoke for a short time in draconic, the one language Twilight had never had a chance to learn, and Spike and Scarlet had left, making their nest in the great cave in which they currently 'napped'.

She knew that Spike and Scarlet had had several clutches of eggs, but Twilight had never been invited to meet any of Spike's children. Perhaps, after Spike and Scarlet awoke, she would visit and ask if she could meet their next clutch. Dragons mated for life, were immortal beyond sickness and physical injury, and had many clutches of eggs, so she was certain Spike and Scarlet would produce more eggs.

She felt another tear slide down her fur. Or perhaps Scarlet didn't want any ponies near her whelps or eggs. Perhaps her experience with being abandoned by Sunset Shimmer had soured her relations with ponies. She had certainly never visited Ponyville with Spike, even after it had become clear to everyone that they were mates. Perhaps Scarlet hated ponies, and Spike would never endanger his children or anger his beloved just so a pony could see the eggs. She wondered if Spike even thought of Twilight as his dear friend anymore.

Applejack had been the next to pass on. She'd died with a smile on her face, in the arms of her husband, a stallion from Cherry Jubilee's family line. When they'd married, it had combined Sweet Apple Acres and the cherry businesses. They had even created some pies and fritters that combined apples and cherries. Even a super special cider that had become popular. Cherry-Apple Cider had even become the official drink of the Wonderbolts, thanks to Rainbow Dash's endorsement.

The yellow earth pony had been buried next to Granny Smith, Big Mac, and her parents, all beneath a huge apple tree. After Applejack's burial, the tree had grown even larger and had started producing cherry-apples. At least, that was what Twilight called them. Fluttershy had suggested more unique names, but they were just smaller apples with a sweet cherry flavor. Apples harvested from that tree didn't need to be mixed to produce Cherry-Apple Cider. Applejack's legacy. Her beloved trees and her great cider.

Sweet Apple Acres was now run by Applejack, Big Mac, and Applebloom's descendants. Twilight chuckled to herself, thinking of Appleslice, one of Applebloom's direct descendants. She had made her own version of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and had even come to Twilight, asking her if she could repair the thousand-year broken club house. Twilight had happily used her magic to bring back the Crusader club house.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders now consisted of pretty much all young ponies who hadn't earned their cutie marks yet, and a few who had, but didn't know what they meant. That was, in the end, what the Crusaders had been for. Helping others understand their cutie mark. Appleslice was the president, since, as she said, her ancestor had been one of the original Crusaders.

Applejack, Big Mac, and Applebloom would have been very happy to see their farm now. It was huge. It took up half of Ponyville. The Apple family was wealthier even than the Rich family. However, just like the Apple family who had started the farm, they never flaunted it. She doubted if little Appleslice even knew just HOW wealthy her family was. Only the princesses could claim wealth even near the Apples. And of course, dragons. A dragon's life was wealth and treasure, though. Spike probably had more gems and gold than Celestia in that cave.

Twilight sat up on the bed, the other side of her pillow now soaked with her tears as well. Her head was pounding. Sobbing did that. It gave her a massive headache. She managed to pull herself out of bed, wings dragging the floor, and move to the potions cabinet. Her blurry vision prevented her from finding the right potion.

She ran a hoof over her eyes, blinking back the tears. There it was. A pale blue potion, capped with a simple wooden cork. Sparkling violet light surrounded the bottle and popped the cork. She levitated the potion and took a long drink from it. She directed the bottle back to it's place on the shelf as she felt her headache slowly fade away.

Thank Celestia for ancient zebra medicine! The zebras no longer hid in forests. They wandered the streets of Ponyville and were treated just like any other citizen. Some giggled at their rhyming speech, however. Most zebras ran potion markets or worked in hospitals. It was their calling, they claimed. To help ponyfolk with their problems any way they could. Twilight vaguely recalled Zecora's death.

She'd died alone in her hut in Everfree. It had taken days before anyone had even found her body. Applebloom, Zecora's only pony student, had been the one to find her partially decayed body. She remembered the crying mare running out of Everfree screaming about Zecora and death. Twilight hadn't understood what she meant until she had visited Zecora's hut herself. Applebloom was holed up in her old clubhouse and wouldn't come out, not even for her best friend Sweetie Belle.

Oddly enough, all of Ponyville came to Zecora's funeral. Applebloom had been inconsolable. Not even Sweetie Belle or Pipsqueak, her coltfriend, could get her to stop sobbing. Most people just thanked Zecora for her potions and aid in times of peril, and apologized for treating her so badly for so long. That...was it for the zebra. It still didn't stop Twilight from wishing she were still around.

The Alicorn princess stretched her wings and rolled her shoulders as the headache vanished completely. She was looking a stained glass window showing a glittering pink butterfly. Fluttershy. The last of her friends to leave her. The Element of Kindness...Twilight remembered her death just as she remembered the others'. Fluttershy hadn't been as close to her as the others, especially later in life, but she was still a great friend and greatly missed by the princess.

The beautiful pastel-maned pegasus had kept her youth far longer than the others. She had, after all, been a supermodel for a short time. By Canterlot standards, she was the most beautiful mare in Equestria, besides the Princesses themselves, and she was so kind and loving. So loving, in fact, that she had fallen in love with something so abhorrent that her friends almost never accepted their love.

Yes, Fluttershy had fallen in love with that god of chaos, Discord. It had been Rainbow Dash who had found out. Fluttershy and Discord had been with each other in her cottage during a Nightmare Night, and the rainbow pegasus had stopped to make sure she was okay. When she had passed the window, she'd seen nothing other than the sweet yellow pegasus locked in an embrace and passionate kiss with the Lord of Chaos himself.

She remembered how Rainbow had charged in, eyes blazing, and accused Discord of 'raping' Fluttershy or using mind control on her. After much arguing and explanations from both Fluttershy and Discord, it had become clear that they truly loved each other. Sadly, her friends hadn't believed her, Twilight included, and the princess remembered calling her sister in law, Cadence, to help her see if the love was real or mind-controlled.

Cadence had came swiftly and as soon as she saw the draconequus holding the sweet yellow pegasus in his arms, it had become clear to her that mind control and rape were out of the question. She had explained to Twilight that Discord and Fluttershy were head over hooves in love with each other, no love poison, potion, or mind control would ever change that. It had been a blow, and no one could accept it, but they managed to tolerate his presence, and even attended their wedding.

It had been a very odd wedding. At Discord's request, Cadence had been the one to preside over the ceremony, and Discord had chosen the Smooze as his best...what, slime creature? Twilight still didn't know what to call the strange green ball of cuddly slime. Fluttershy's mare of honor had been, of all ponies, Pinkie Pie.

She was the only one who had seemed even remotely happy about having Discord around all the time, after all. Something about chocolate milk rain. Twilight giggled. Pinkie...she was so random. She and Cheese...they had thrown Fluttershy and Discord the best reception Twilight ever remembered, and in a thousand years, she'd been to a lot of parties and wedding receptions.

Tears pouring down her face, soaking her fur, Twilight didn't even try to stop or hold back this time. Fluttershy's funeral...oh, sweet Celestia...the mere memory was so...traumatizing she almost didn't want to remember. The sweet pegasus had just stopped breathing one day. She fell asleep on a sofa in her cottage, surrounded by her beloved animals, including several of Angel bunny's children, and never woke up.

Her funeral had been attended by nearly everyone in Equestria, just like Pinkie's, but for different reasons. It was held at the very edge of the Everfree Forest, thousands of animals surrounded her coffin, birds singing songs of pure grief and loss, bears and wolves howling with pain. Even her former manager's daughter from when she'd been a model was there, lamenting the loss of such a beautiful, talented mare, one that had been spoken of many times in the modeling business.

Each Princess spoke of her kindness and love, and how she alone had saved Equestria from chaos. Discord had been away at the time, on royal business, and hadn't even known of his wife's death until weeks after. Twilight was almost glad of it. She had been the only thing holding the Lord of Chaos back from tyranny and darkness.

After learning of her death, Discord had became quiet, so quiet that Twilight wondered whether or not he was trying to figure out a way to kill himself so as to truly join her. Eventually, Discord simply vanished, but not before finding a way to bring more sorrow to Twilight and everyone who knew Fluttershy. He'd, for lack of better words, vandalized her grave. Her coffin was gone and the site was covered in pale pink diamond dust. Apparently, Discord had turned the dirt he'd scraped from her burial site into diamond dust and stole her body, taking to Celestia-knows-where.

Regardless, losing Fluttershy, and not knowing where she lay, left a hole in Twilight that she still hadn't been able to fill. She couldn't talk to animals, but she'd tried. She'd begged one of Angel's children to help her find Fluttershy, but the small brown rabbit had simply shook her head stubbornly, ears flat and tears in her eyes. As a final gift to Fluttershy, Twilight adopted the tiny brown rabbit. She'd named her Angela, after her father, Angel.

After the death of her beloved owl and the departure of Spike, Angela was a great comfort to her, even if they could not communicate. Even after all these thousands of years, she still had one of Angela's descendants with her. A small black and white bunny, barely out of babyhood, was curled up in a small bed that her pet rabbits had used throughout the centuries. The tiny rabbit was male, and Twilight had named him Angel Jr., to honor Fluttershy and the baby rabbit's distant relatives.

She nuzzled the tiny rabbit with her horn. It gave a soft squeak before rolling onto it's back and going to sleep again. Twilight smiled through her tears. Angel Jr. was a sweetheart. There was nothing of the stubborn first Angel in him at all. He was pure kindness. It was all Fluttershy, Twilight assumed. Kindness and love, just like the pegasus.

A sharp bang suddenly jolted her out of her reverie of remembrance. Ears perking up, she realized it was someone at her door. People rarely bothered the Princess anymore. She even had her own royal guards, some of whom were bat pegasi from Luna's guard. Twilight didn't care if her guards were originally solar, lunar, or...whatever Cadence's love guards were called.

She shook herself. Somehow, someone had made it past the guards without even alerting them to their presence. Spreading her wings, Twilight flew threw the halls, passing stained glass and portraits of her friends, eventually reaching the large, crystalline double door. She slowly pulled it open with her magic.

There was...nothing. She looked around in the darkness. Her guards were sleeping soundly, even the nocturnal Lunar ponies, which was definitely odd. Magic had put them to sleep. She could feel it, but she couldn't pinpoint the location. She heard a soft rustle in a nearby tree. She looked up. What looked like a pony was silhouetted by the moon's light. Nothing but a black outline, but Twilight could tell it was a mare, and a bat-winged lunar pegasus.

"Hello? Who are you?" Twilight called hesitantly, "Did you...put my guards to sleep?"

The strange lunar pegasus simply tilted her head toward the ground, as if asking Twilight to look, and spread her bat-like wings and took to the air. Her long tail and mane trailing into the moonlight. Twilight wished she could have gotten a better look. So she could at least have found out why she was there, and perhaps asked Princess Luna if one of her guards had been to Twilight's palace. Twilight stepped forward, intent on nudging her guards to wakefulness.

Her hooves bumped into something soft. She blinked in surprise and glanced down. It was a basket. A woven basket lined with soft fabric and filled with...Twilight's eyes widened again in surprise. A bright blue-green egg. What the…? Did the bat-pegasus come simply to deliver this strange egg to Twilight? Was it meant as a gift to the Princess, or was their something else to it?

She silently levitated the basket and backed into her castle. She didn't wake the guards. She never needed guards before, so it didn't matter if they were asleep. Closing the doors gently, she carried the basket to her bedroom. After levitating the blanket off the strange egg, she noticed a scroll of parchment under it, sealed shut with a red and black stamp of what she instantly recognized as the ancient Zegyptian eight-pointed star of Chaos. Did this odd egg have something to do with the ancient Zebra kingdom, or with Discord? The star of Chaos was utilized by both at various points in history. She shook herself. It didn't matter. She needed to READ the scroll, not think about the seal it was closed with.

A glow of violet magic later and the note was open before her eyes. She read the note, with increasing confusion and shock.

 _To My Old Friend Twilight Sparkle,_

 _I am sorry I did not greet you in person. We have both changed so much in the thousand years since we lost contact. I do not even know if I could see you as my friend any longer. You are a true Princess of Equestria, and I am still, for all intents and purposes, a mere pegasus. It is...harder than you can imagine for a mare as shy as myself to get such intimate words out to a Princess, but please, listen, and for once, believe in what you cannot immediately see._

 _My beloved found this egg outside our home in the Everfree Forest. It had been abandoned by it's parents, on the verge of hatching. He immediately knew what it was and suggested we keep it and raise it as our own foal. I wanted to, oh, how I wanted to, but I knew of your sorrow. Our old connection through the Elements of Harmony, along with my ability to feel the emotions of others...empathy, I believe it is called...led me to suggest giving the egg and the foal within to you, to care for. As long as the tiny filly (yes, it is indeed a filly) has enough love, she will live as long as you and remain with you as long as you will allow her to._

 _She will hatch very soon, probably shortly after you finish reading, and likely re-reading, this. Please, do not harm her. I promised my love that the filly would come to no harm by you, Princess of Friendship. Please, do not make me a liar. I am not Applejack, but lying hurts ponies, and I hate ponies being hurt or feeling hurt._

 _You will wonder for a long time about who I am, that I remember Applejack and the Elements, but I am afraid I cannot answer that. It would only bring you more sorrow. Please stop feeling sorrow for things you cannot change. Know that those you love are happy, in whatever lies in the afterlife. Applejack is with her family, at long last, Pinkie can bring happiness to an entire afterlife of ponies, Rarity can design magnificent dresses she could only imagine on this plane of existence. Rainbow Dash can fly faster than anypony living. Do not mourn their loss, Princess._

 _Please, for the love of your lost friends, care for this tiny filly as if she were your own. Foals bring great joy to one's life. My own foals helped take away the sorrow of losing my friends, reminding me that love can exist, even without those you spent most of your life with. Yes, the bat-pony was me. I am not a lunar pegasus, so please trouble not the Princess of the Night. I am a vamppony, which is why I live in Everfree. I know you know of my people, and of the truce between us and the living ponies. Know that you can trust me, dearest Twilight Sparkle._

 _My love forever,_

 _A former friend_

Twilight did indeed read the letter many times over. By the time she was finished, the oddly elegant writing was smudged with tears. A former friend...a vamppony...she didn't remember being friends with any vampponies. Perhaps one of her old friends had been infected, and then after their death, returned to unlife as a vamppony. She swiped at her eyes with a hoof. She would never forgive herself if such a thing had happened.

She hadn't been there for her friend when the vamp infection had taken her over and brought her back to the world of the living, inside her own coffin! The fear the poor pony must have felt! Twilight sobbed. Anypony, even if it weren't one of the Elements, and just another friend, such as Roseluck or Matilda or Aloe. She hadn't been there. She had been a terrible friend!

She laughed softly at the small thought of the vamp pegasus being Derpy. For some strange reason, she imagined she saw Derpy occasionally flying throughout Ponyville, still, along with the pony Derpy referred to as simply The Doctor. She was sure it was her imagination. Derpy and the Doctor had to be long dead, and time travel...well, that was impossible, at least on such a large scale. No, her visions of Derpy and the Doctor were mere memories brought on by desperation.

A sharp cracking sound brought her back to the present. Her ears twitched, and she glanced down at the egg. It was indeed hatching, just like the letter-sender had said. She stepped back. Whatever it was, it wasn't a pony, but the pony who sent the letter was a friend...she didn't expect the hatchling, whatever it was, to be some type of monster.

A few more cracks appeared on the shell of the egg, before finally shattering, revealing a tiny foal. She was a shiny onyx color, with chitin instead of fur, and her eyes were a solid bright green, with a tiny slit pupil like a dragon's eye. She had a pale blue-green mane, so short it looked more like a crest. It was almost translucent and slightly filmy. The hatchling's wings were still glued to her back by a bit of slime from the egg, and her horn was dripping slightly with green slime.

Twilight's mouth was open in pure shock. A changeling! She honestly hadn't seen one since Cadence's wedding a thousand years ago! What was her 'friend' thinking? Giving her a changeling egg? Expecting her to care for one of the little insects that had almost ruined her beloved brother and sister in law's wedding?

She glanced sideways at the letter, lying on a table. 'Please, for once, believe in what you cannot immediately see' said the letter. She felt the fear and anger fade a bit. It was just a tiny filly. A new-hatched changeling. What danger did it pose to an alicorn? Perhaps...she could come to love this strange being. She instantly knew the baby changeling would have been a queen had she been raised in a hive.

The green eyes, green mane, and flicker of green magic from the end of her tiny horn gave it away. The blue-colored changelings with no mane were drones. Even the female drones had no mane and blue eyes. This...would grow up to look very similar to the evil Chrysalis.

She leaned down and gently levitated the cracked egg shell out of the basket. She stroked the tiny changeling filly's filmy mane. She felt something she hadn't felt in a long time. Twilight Sparkle felt...love, and...she felt needed. This tiny changeling queen needed her to live. The Princess nuzzled the baby changeling.

It cooed softly. Twilight felt a flicker of magic shoot through her. Her love was feeding the baby changeling. She gathered the tiny queen into her hooves and nuzzled the baby. The filly's wings were still clinging to her back. Twilight levitated a towel from the bathroom and wiped the slime from the changeling's wings. The hatchling sniffed her newly clean wings curiously, and gently spread them. She was far too young to fly, even by changeling standards, and simply observed her wings silently, giving them a cautious lick with her tiny tongue.

"No, no, dear, we don't do that!" Twilight admonished the baby changeling. She felt bad almost instantly. She couldn't keep thinking of the hatchling as "baby changeling" or "her"...it needed a name. What could she possibly name a changeling? She'd named Spike when she herself was a filly, so she had been uncreative. What was a good name? It didn't matter whether she gave it a pony name or a changeling name, really. She was determined to prove her friend right and raise this changeling.

"What should I call you, little one?" She stroked the hatchling's horn, which emitted a soft green glow of magic. Twilight smiled, immediately a name came to mind. "Lux Zmara. That's your name. It's an ancient language, meaning Emerald Light."

Lux made a slight buzzing noise that Twilight assumed was agreement. The newly-christened Lux twisted slightly in Twilight's hooves, uncomfortably. The alicorn smiled and carried the hatchling and her basket to the Princess's bedroom. It wouldn't do to leave a baby on it's own, even a changeling baby. She gently placed Lux on her soft sheets while she searched for new blankets to replace the egg-slime covered ones in the basket.

She found a pale green blanket made of soft cotton. She folded it with her magic and arranged it over the cushion she'd placed in the basket. It reminded her of the bed Spike had in the old Golden Oak library so long ago. She gently levitated Lux, who had fallen asleep on Twilight's bed, into the basket. A small violet light emanated from her horn as she tucked her new foal in. Lux made a soft sound of contentment and put a hoof in her mouth.

Twilight figured she would have to visit the foal supply store and get something for Lux to chew on. Changelings had fangs, and Twilight was certain those would hurt when they came in. She bent down and kissed Lux lightly below the horn.

The Princess nodded once at the sleeping filly and headed to a window. She opened it softly with magic, not wanting to wake Lux.

"Thank you, whoever you are." She called to the night sky. "I promise I'll take care of her. If you ever want to visit, I would love to know who you are. Her name is Lux, by the way."

She thought for a moment that she saw a dark silhouette of a vamppony against the silver moon, but it might have been her imagination.

 _If anyone is interested in learning more about the characters in this story, I could write a sequel about Scarlet the dragon or Lux, Twilight's adopted changeling baby. Or the vampponies and their home in Everfree. I don't like original characters, but I think Scarlet, at least, would be very interesting to write about._


End file.
